Chapter 356

[Aaron Side Story Episode 27]

3. The first dream (11)

“Ugh... Ugh....”

A sweet smell comes from the mouth.

It feels like my lungs will explode.

Aaron managed to hold back his knees that were about to collapse and ran.

“Brother me...!”

The hands that held my sister’s are wet with sweat.

The girl’s stamina is already at its limit.

The staggering steps drew a ruler.

“You can’t stop, Nina, run!”

don’t look back

The siblings ran with their teeth clenched.

It gets eaten the moment it stops.

Disaster was coming from behind.

‘what’s this.’

How is happiness regained?

How did you get out of that thorny road?

that it turns out like this?

I feel dizzy.

I just want to curse God.

Tears mixed with sweat flowed down.

After losing his parents in an absurd accident.

The two siblings fell into hell in an instant.

The store in the village was mortgaged and disappeared somewhere.

All that was left was some money and a house.

It would be better if you were unhappy alone.

My sister was the problem.

Since before, she was weak and had to take medicine to survive.

money.

More money was needed.

Aaron rolled through the gutter to save money.

I learned my skills by buying and selling all kinds of things.

‘So, so...!’

I can only see that I was lucky.

If you tried ten times, you would have succeeded once.

The reckless business somehow settled down, and when they reached adulthood, it became a stable form and supported the life of the siblings.

It is to regain the happiness once lost.

At the corner of the village, a shop was being built just for them.

Aaron travels between towns and cities to collect goods, while his younger sister sells in the store.

You can finally not suffer.

A simple dream and happiness of a brother and sister who barely achieved it.

But the happiness of the weak is like a sandcastle on the beach.

From then on, stories began to circulate everywhere.

Rumor has it that destruction has come.

The rumor became a reality, and they were following right after the siblings.

‘What the fuck! shit!’

run recklessly

The store that was their dream and goal has long since been burned down.

The house their parents left behind also disappeared.

I abandoned my house, my store, and my hometown.

I just ran and ran to save my life.

The ones chasing the siblings were sometimes monsters.

The monsters who lost their livelihood came over to the place where humans live and rampaged ferociously.

Sometimes they were humans.

The Golden Empire has collapsed and turned into a thieves’ playground.

Knights who lost their owners and citizens who lost their homes became thieves and plundered the lives and goods of their neighbors.

Sometimes it was catastrophic.

Aaron still couldn’t forget the image engraved in his mind.

If you see them even once, you have to admit it.

The fact that the Taoni language has reached a time of destruction.

“Save me, save me!”

“Quaaaaaagh!”

“Aww!”

Screams rang out everywhere.

The place where the brother and sister are running is the street of a certain city.

All nearby mansions and buildings are burning.

People with nowhere to go groaned and shouted.

‘Is it the same here?’

It’s the same wherever you go.

I left my hometown and came to a city that was said to be safe, but the situation did not improve.

On the left, a group of blood-soaked ogres run rampant.

On the right, the same humans are plundering and killing each other.

Disaster was coming from behind.

“I’m sorry oppa, I’m sorry...”

“Don’t apologize!”

Aaron cut off his sister.

don’t want to hear

“I... this far...”

The young man grabbed the girl’s hand and dragged it.

The girl, who was about to say something, leaned forward and stopped talking.

‘Why?’

The happiness they have accumulated is too powerless in the face of violence.

it’s because it’s weak

Because you are weak, you cannot keep happiness.

Just like their parents died absurdly to the thief.

Because they are not strong enough to protect their own happiness.

“...”

I can’t stand it.

So is running now.

My younger sister, who is weak, cannot go far even if she runs.

So the disaster caught up with me.

‘It’s because I’m weak.’

As long as her body is healthy.

I could have evacuated much farther than now.

I didn’t have to die in a place like this.

“Alone... Go alone...”

Crying sounds came from behind.

Aaron didn’t answer.

‘Because I am weak.’

What if you were stronger than you are now?

If Aaron had the power to knock out bandits and monsters, he wouldn’t have to go around the dangerous road.

He could have lifted the body of the dying girl behind him and ran away in a single leap.

Aaron couldn’t.

The siblings were equally weak.

A few years after my parents died.

I must have thought so subconsciously.

Aaron thought he was acting on his own, but hidden memories were controlling him.

Of course, I wasn’t obsessed with it from the beginning.

Slightly more severe than others.

So, in the eyes of others, Aaron seemed to be working hard.

In fact, it was.

It was after going through several things that the situation got worse.

Now, Aaron was able to calmly judge his past self.

‘Was it the 15th floor?’

retraces the dim past.

15th Floor of Taoneer’s Mission.

The mission is to rescue the princess and escape from the escort city.

Aaron participated in the mission along with his colleagues.

‘An accident happened.’

Perhaps that incident was the first.

In the middle of the mission, a party was only about to escape by securing the new recruit of the princess.

However, Aaron was poisoned by a poisoned weapon.

If this continues, Aaron will die.

Han, who was the party leader, modified the escape plan.

I don’t know if it was because of Aaron or some other reason.

However, the mission, which should have flowed smoothly, became difficult after that.

‘....’

The past nearly 100 years.

I can’t remember how I was feeling at the time.

It just looks lively.

Early morning training ground with no one there.

The figure of a young man wielding and stabbing a spear like mad.

“shit... Damn...”

the young man muttered to himself.

sweaty body.

Heavy limbs do not listen.

The young man forcibly moved his body in disobedience to the order.

tightly pursed lips.

I swung it without even knowing that blood was flowing.

The young man was crying.

“Why... I am weak... Why...”

It was from this point on.

The time when Aaron, who was an ordinary hard worker, changed.

He became obsessed with the goal of becoming stronger, and the balance of his life began to break.

at that time.

Aaron’s life in the waiting room was painful, but he had small happiness.

Moving forward with reliable colleagues.

But that happiness was shattered.

Aaron, who had no talent, was not helpful to his colleagues.

‘It probably wasn’t just me.’

It’s not just Aaron who has fallen out.

There were heroes who were reluctant to fight from the beginning, and there were also heroes who were eliminated for various reasons along the way.

There was a way for them too.

Commonly referred to as non-combat.

There are means to help without fighting.

Even if it’s not a specific instructor role, Aaron has experience as a merchant.

Another talent could have contributed to the waiting room.

Of course, it’s sad that I can’t be with my colleagues.

It would have hurt as deep as the dream being frustrated.

But it is not without a path.

Knowing that, Han and the others never blamed the fallen heroes.

cheered them on for their future.

So did the fallen heroes.

By acknowledging the reality that he was lacking and giving up on his path, he did not stand in the way of his colleagues.

But the hero Aaron was strange.

Those with similar talent quit long ago.

He was the only one left, struggling against the wall in front of him.

It cannot be explained by mere effort or diligence.

A life of giving up all daily life and advancing desperately by focusing on one thing to become stronger.

Madness beyond obsession.

I do not know.

Nobody knows.

Only one Israt saw the piece.

There were no results at all.

Despite his poor talent, Aaron was able to become a regular member up to the 20th floor.

But Aaron knew.

The fact that one day you will fall behind.

In fact, the new hero called Belkist had followed him to the bottom of his chin with much less time and effort than Aaron.

‘Still, I didn’t stop.’

while knowing

The more I try, the more miserable I know.

Aaron gave up his seat in the 1st party to Belquist, but he did not leave his seat as a combat member.

Even at that point, he tried to be strong.

‘Brother... did you notice?’

At that time, he was no longer Aaron.

Before he was summoned here, there was a seed in the young man’s heart.

It is the seed of the deep trauma of having lost happiness twice due to lack of strength.

It would have been fine at first.

Under other circumstances, I could have spent my whole life without the seed awakening.

However, the waiting room is not an ordinary place.

It was an extreme place where death and life intersect.

There were several occasions there.

It nourished the seed in the heart.

The seed took root in the unconscious and began to grow.

And the seed became a huge tree.

The tree jumped out of the unconscious world and penetrated into the conscious world.

Eventually, Aaron’s consciousness began to be dominated by the tree.

“...”

I finally realize.

Up until now, Aaron thought that trying to be strong was a matter of choice.

[Resolve the contradiction hidden within you first.]

The boy had told Aaron that when he first came here.

To resolve the contradiction in the heart.

Surely it was.

Knowing that he couldn’t be strong, knowing that there was another way, Aaron forced himself to become stronger.

‘This doesn’t make sense.’

Inside the cabin room.

Aaron stands up and looks at his sister’s portrait.

I was finally able to answer the boy’s question.

“It’s not that I won’t give up...”

It was that I couldn’t.